Garment



Patented June 10, 1947 -GARMENT 1 rFrances Rr- MeAhee;-Westport,,Conmassignor to McAbee r Industries, Incorporated; .Westport, fllonni, acorporation of'Connectic'ut 'Applidation Ma? 19, 1945, SerialfiNo.65912129 r 2. Claims.

a l Thisrinventionrelatesrto "hewoand useiiulrim- ,eprovementsinoladiesisgarmentswandz'hashfortits ;:-.principal-.-kob=j ect; the:provisiona @of an improved body garment whichmaysaberemhodied'iinraiislip,

gigown-i, or dress, iandrwhichz:hasccertaimstructural;

wteatures-r-which proveathesfitrrofistheg arment .rDILrihET ib dy fi-ofi:ther. wearemresultingr in can :ex-

.tremely TGOHl-f'OI'iiBiblEjsE'flIiHlEIlt andronez'which' will nottwist; or iride upw'when the wearerrsitsr down.

1 The garment .ot the :present. invent-ion eemhodies; 40

; thesbest :feat-ures -of :garments: out-.ilargely iorwholly non:itheehias; including :particularlyr thecomfor- -table wearinrqua1ities*of K such a garment and" the r durability ot the seams. ZJ'IUalsosretainsahowever,

W2 ;-garment extendingifrom a point spaced fromqt-he frontemedianlinenand justrheiowithe ahustnencircling port-1cm! throughrthBPHHdGIfiQTm-YSEGtiOH -.t the rear. ofv thesg'arment where. ittemninates 5 at the rear vertical seam at or. near. theflwaist line.This-:dart; shapes =ther-bustr portion: of-A- the garment,givingsit;thesefiecttot a-=wellsfitting .U-brassiere, ,permits entire=freedom-of-. movement -by. .theawearer, andaoauses the.=skirtportionnof the garment r to merge symmetrically intowthe swaist portion.Inasmuch asneach; hlanlgis: out horizontally ,f-romwtwo-thirdsttothree-tourths of titswidthato aformthe edges, which-; when joined vtogether, t-form this dart, each. side i. blank; maynbe when the wearer:1S1 standingaand the non-riding 1; qualities. of :such a; asl lpwwhen:t-he. wearer; sits down.

.-. llhe bias out slip! :ofv conventional :oonstruction without.departing fromr-the. structure .of the in- .vention asideflnedv by:theaappended claims.

.. The patterniisso. arranged as-.to-;-have. amini- .of\ wastematerial-.in-.cntting oandt the gar-.laccommodates.theyiHCreaSedL-giIthFQf h srnentrisf-urtherisoformedrassto makmthefltask when she.- sitsdown;gbyeexpanding.mircnmierentially although .:such expansion reduces.:the: ieffectivedengthof the g-armenuw'ausing it zto lIilll]. .1downwardly 0n @the 1 shoulder zstnaps, sand ;ride upwardlw over I the.:knees. i In theqagarmenti otsthe present invention, the relationship ofthewparts is suchthatthea-increase inreircumference of. the middleandwwaist portion, idue @tonsitti-ng -:-dow n,

-does:.-n0t toreshorten the; garment wer-tically.

.uAnotherri-mportant objectof. the; invention is NtQ provide a; garmentwhich.-.readi1y passes over theIshoulderssoff-thev wearentandaalsosnugly fits Ithe waist portionotthe wearer when'she-isi-standingiManypersons are so proportioned. asto have relatively. widejshoulders...compared. Withtheir,

middlelldimensions-,..and rtdrenable a well fitting garment to pass' theshoulders, side openingslcloseableby slidefasteners, buttonsand the likemust be resorted .to. I The present garment .passes the .shoulder asreadily as a full.biasigarmentabut.

" novel .con'structionis' .formed on .each Zsideof." themtgradingitheipatterns for. the. size. ranges a rela- ..','tively simpleone. .Also, .the.sewing. .openationis .[relative1ysimp1e,.rparticu1ar1yfonthe reasonuthat the operator is requiredrto handleonly twoiblankszinsteadlof six, eight,.- or. even -.-ten,..as in' conventionalgarments.

"..Inithe .drawings: 1 3

T Fig; 1; is. a .front. and. partial Lside elevationeof a. ladies.garment embodyin lthe present. inven- 30. 'tion.

T'Eigf' 2 .is. a rear .and partiai sideielevatione .of the same garment.

"TEigig3 is a broken'sideelevation-.ofithe..=up.per or waist-encirclingportion offthe garment.

L Fig: 4 is a plan View of a blank twooofwhich are zused in forming'thegarment of the present invention.

Fig? 5 is a plan view "of. two blanks'similarin ,contour to the blank of'Eig. ,4; but .ishowing. a1-

40 .ternativemeans whereby the blank. of"'l ig.. 4 is Sfiformedi fromtwo pieces rather. than one piece.

Two blanks .l 0 of the contour shown Fig. 4 :maybe used in forming oneembodiment "of the garment'of the" present invention. IEach blankincludes a lower curved edge ll whicl'iiormsith'e "lower edge "of thegarment, and. a substantially vertical,"straight edge! 2 which issomewhat concavely curvfed at.its upper end, asshown atil3, suchedgertermiriating' at. point "I4. "TTlhe blank further. includes a.Ishortw downwardly-inclined edge .l5, and asubstantially.straight;upwardly- .r iriclinededge J 6 which terminates. at, point. I I whichishdisposed at" the-nirontoeenter of the upper .edge-uoLthe garment.wContinuingtfrom 55,.point I 11,.th616i5 a\substantially,-straighttedgel B terminating at point 19, a concavely-curved edge 20 terminating atpoint 2 l, and a short, straight or concavely-curved edge 22 terminatingat point 23 which is at the upper edge of the center back of thefinished garment. Finally, the blank includes a downwardly-extending,substantiallystraight edge '24, and another downwardly andoutwardly-extending, substantially-straight edge 25 which terminates atpoint 26 where it intersects with the lower curved edge H at the loweredge of the center back of the garment.

Between the lower terminal 30 of edge 24, and the upper terminal 3| ofedge 25, there is an inwardly-extending cut, and in forming this cutsome of the material may be removed from the blank. The cut is thusdefined by upper edge 34 and lower edge 35 which intersect at' theirinner ends at point 35. In cutting blank Ill, the grain line of thematerial, shown at 39, should have substantially the relationship shown.This grain line may, of course, vary in certain sizes of the garment,although for most sizes the line indicated is preferable, and issubstantially parallel with only one edge of the blank, namely, edge l8.

In forming the garment, two blanks ID are first joined along edges [2and I3 to form stitch line 40 which constitutes the front median line ofthe garment. A short, triangular dart over each bust is now formed.Broken lines 21 and 28 define the location of this dart. The material isfolded downwardly to where point 30 coincides with point 4|, and stitchline 42 is then formed. Next, edges l6 are joined together to formstitch line 43, which, when viewed from the front, is a continuation ofstitch line 40. Edges I8, 20 and 22 in each blank l form the upper edgeof the garment, and shoulder straps 45 are secured at their forward endsto points I8, and at their rear ends to points 2|. Upper rear edges 24are next joined together to form rear vertical seam 48, and lowervertical edges 25 are joined together to form vertical seam 49 which isa continuation of seam 48.

The contour of edges 34 and 35 in the transverse opening now will beconsidered; It will be noted that edge 34, which is concavely curved,forms the are of a somewhat larger circle th'an does edge 35, which islikewise somewhat concavely curved. These edges are joined together toform stitch line 50. The contour of edges 34 and 35 will be varied,depending upon the particular size of the garment, and in some instancesone edge or the other may have a greater curvature. Both edges are ofsubstantially the same length, although if a garment having larger bustdimensions is required, edge 34 may be of greater length, and when thetwo edges are joined together, the longer edge 34 may be progressivelyfulled relative to edge 35. Conversely, if it is desired to make thebust portion relatively smaller and the midriff and hip sectionsproportionately larger, edge 35 may be of greater length than edge 34.

By forming edge 34 of a contour such that a line tangent to such edgesubstantially at its center is substantially at right angles to edge 24,a garment will be provided which fits the average figure, and theresulting stitch line 50, which is formed when edges 34 and 35 arejoined together, is inclined downwardly from its upper terminal 36. Thelower terminal of stitch line 50 at the center back seam is disposed ator near the waist line of the wearer. In the smaller sizes, this rearterminal may be somewhat above 4 the waist line, and in th'e largersizes, it may be slightly below the waist line.

With further reference to the contours of edges 34 and 35, it may besaid that for garments of the relatively smaller sizes, these edges maybe more nearly straight fo the reason that the wearers hips arerelatively small, and the upper back portion is relatively flat. Ingarments of larger sizes, however, the curve may be greater than thatshown in Fig. 4. It will be appreciated, also, that the grain line ofthe material through the waist section in the finished garment dependsupon the general angle of edges 34 and 35 relative to edge 24, If theseedges are generally at right angles with edge 24, as is shown in Fig. 4,the resulting skirt is quit full, whereas if they are inclined moreupwardly at their inner ends, the result is a somewhat tighter skirt.Also, the amount of material which is cut out to form edges 34 and 35may vary in several instances. Generally speaking, it may be said thatfor the smaller sizes less material is cut out, whereas for the largersizes a greater amount of material may be cut out.

The purpose of short dart 42 on each side of the bust portion is tocause the garment to cling to the body in the area intermediate thebusts of the wearer. It will be readily appreciated that this desirableresult is not achieved in conventional garments having the usual sideseams, and no front and back central, vertical seams. Front seams 40 and43 in the garment of the present invention give the desirable separationline in the bust-enclosing portions of the garment, and

thus eliminate the need for a form-fitting brassiere. Also of particularadvantag is the fact that the front and rear seams form line of fixedlength, which effectively prevent the garment from riding up when thewearer sits down. Thus, although the garment is largel on the bias, itdoes not have the objectionable feature of the bias garment, causing thegarment to shorten in the front and back when the wearer sits down, but,on the contrary, the present garment acts like a straight-cut garmentunder such conditions.

In Fig. 5, the blank used in forming each side of the garment is made intwo pieces Illa and lb, instead of one piece as shown in Fig. 4. Whenthe two pieces are joined together along edges 60 and BI, a blanksimilar to that shown in Fig, 4 is formed. The primary advantage in thisconstruction is that it enables one to utilize smaller pieces ofmaterial, and certain structural changes will result in the finishedgarment if the grain lines of the material are varied somewhat.

While two forms or embodiments of the invention have been shown anddescribed herein for illustrative purposes, and the construction andarrangement incidental to two specific applications'thereof have beendisclosed and discussed in detail, it is to be understood that theinvention is limited neither to the mere details or relative arrangementof parts, nor to its specific embodiments shown herein, but thatextensive deviations from the illustrated forms or embodiments of theinvention may be made Without departing from the principles thereof.

What I claim is:

1. A ladies garment including attached waist and skirt portions andformed from a pair of similarly-shaped blanks, each formed from aplurality of pieces of material, two adjacent side edges of the blanksbeing joined together to form a single, front vertical seam, and the tworemaining side edges of the blanks being joined together to form asingle, rear vertical seam, such seams lying, respectively,substantially along the front and rear vertical median lines of the garment, each blank including a curved lower edge forming the lower edge ofthe garment, the side edges, and upper edges which form the upper edgeof the waist portion of the garment and which are formed with front andback, upwardlyinclined extensions, shoulder straps on each side of thegarment secured at their opposed terminals to such extensions, eachblank having a cut-out portion extending inwardly from the side edge atthe rear of the garment to a point adjacent to, but spaced from, thevertical edge at the front of the garment, such cut-out portion lying inthe lower Waist-encircling section, the upper and lower edges of suchcut-out portion being joined together to form a generally diagonal seamwhich extends from adjacent the front of the bust-enclosing sectiondownwardly to the rear vertical seam.

2. A ladies garment formed with attached waist and skirt portions andformed from a pair of similarly-shaped blanks of generally rectangularcontour which are joined together along advJ'acent edges to form frontand rea vertical seams coinciding generally with the front and rearvertical median lines of the garment, means comprising shoulder strapsextending over the shoulders of the wearer connecting the front and backof the upper edges of the blanks, each blank having a cut-out portionextending from the rear seam adjacent the waist line of the garmentgenerally upwardly through the underarm section of the garment to apoint spaced from the front vertical seam, the opposed edges of suchcut-out portion being joined together to form a dart which shapes thebust-enclosing portion of the garment, and short darts extendingupwardly from the front vertical seam over the bust-enclosing portions.

FRANCES R. McABEE.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of recordin the file ofthis patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 2,161,063 Kohler June 6, 19392,319,779 Kidder May 25, 1943 2,331,853 Strong Oct. 12, 1943

